Running Out of Time
by PaStA.aNd.RiCe
Summary: It's Christmas and Tomoyo is trying to get Sakura and Syaoran together. But she has a deadline...the Christmas Banquet!
1. Tomoyo the Matchmaker

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own CCS...which I believe is a good thing._

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**_Tomoyo the Matchmaker_**

"Sakura, what do you want for Christmas?" Tomoyo asked her best friend, as they passed by stores and stores with fake snow scattered in the display windows.

"Sakura…" Tomoyo turned to her friend but realized that she wasn't even listening to her. Tomoyo, being her curious self, looked at the direction the emerald-green eyed girl was staring at. Tomoyo turned to see a couple guys sitting at the food court, sipping a couple smoothies while laughing. Even though Tomoyo couldn't exactly pinpoint her eyes on what Sakura was staring at, Tomoyo knew in her heart that Sakura was staring at a certain, amber-eyed boy.

"$50 if you're listening to a word I'm saying." Tomoyo crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"Huh…what…?" Sakura snapped back to reality and looked at Tomoyo before they started walking down the mall again.

"Nothing; hey, what do you want for Christmas?" Tomoyo asked again, deciding to leave the money question out even though she had enough to spare, as they walked into a store with little trinkets and shiny jewelry; each trinket costing at least $20.

"I…I don't know." Sakura shrugged, she picked up a pair of Christmas tree earrings, looked at the price, and grabbed her pink wallet out. She opened it and looked inside the dollar section. She pulled out a wad of crinkled-up dollar bills. Sakura counted it and it only added up to $18-she had spent the whole other $82 on Christmas presents. Sakura frowned and placed the earrings back on the rack and continued trailing behind her best friend.

"Ah, but I know what you want." Tomoyo smirked and looked at Sakura.

"You do?" Sakura turned to the know-it-all, her soft, auburn hair swaying back and forth.

"Yes; you want something my money can't buy." Tomoyo waved her Platinum credit card in Sakura's face.

"_I don't know about that._" Sakura glanced back at the pair of earrings but looked back at Tomoyo quickly to ask what she had in mind.

"And what would that be?" Sakura grinned, 100 sure that Tomoyo was wrong.

"A special invitation from a certain someone with messy, chocolate-brown hair and amber eyes, and the name of Syaoran to ask you to Christmas Banquet..." Tomoyo smiled back. Sakura looked at her feet immediately, blushing. The smoky-amethyst haired girl grabbed Sakura's arm and led her out of the shop. The two girls took the escalator up to the second floor.

"Come on, Sakura, why don't you just tell him?" Tomoyo whined. Sakura looked up at Tomoyo again like she was crazy.

"Tomoyo, if you haven't noticed, I'm not that pretty; Syaoran had three years to fall in love with me, and I'm not exactly on top of the high school 'food chain'." Tomoyo stopped, planted her hands on her hips, and began scolding her friend.

"Sakura Kinomoto, shut your mouth! You're beautiful and it's Syaoran's loss if he doesn't like you! You're a great person, Sakura." Tomoyo sighed and began walking again.

"I'm sorry, Tomoyo, it's just, I don't know; Syaoran just doesn't seem to notice me." Sakura focused on her pink sneakers again as they walked into a candy shop. Sakura grabbed a little baggy and dropped some chunky, white chocolate pieces into it.

"Sakura …" Sakura gasped and looked up to see a familiar, black-haired girl.

"Meilin …" The two girls came together and squealed with delight at seeing each other over the weekend at the mall.

"What are you doing here?" Meilin asked, her red eyes shining with happiness.

"I'm Christmas shopping with Tomoyo. What about you?" Sakura nodded her head to Tomoyo on the other side of the room.

"That's such a coincidence! I'm Christmas shopping with a few people too!" Sakura smiled and Tomoyo came beside her.

"Meilin, who are you shopping with?" Tomoyo asked. Meilin spun around and hollered to her friends. A couple guys started popping out everywhere, each one with a familiar face. Suddenly, Sakura felt a jab in her side.

"Ouch, Tomoyo, what are you doing?" Sakura rubbed her side and Tomoyo nodded towards a chocolate-brown, messy-haired boy. Sakura bit her lower lip at seeing him-Syaoran.

"Oh, hi, Tomoyo..." A blue-haired boy popped out from behind a row of candy, his glasses glinting in the light. Tomoyo's cheeks grew a light pink color.

"Hi, Eriol..." Anybody could tell Tomoyo and Eriol liked each other and were just too stubborn to admit it.

"Hi, Sakura…" Eriol greeted Sakura and Sakura smiled.

"Hello, Eriol…" Eriol nodded and slipped his hands into his baggy, jean pocket.

"Hi, Sakura…" Sakura silently gasped and turned to Syaoran who greeted her.

"Hello, Syaoran…" Sakura thought that calling Syaoran sweetie would have a nicer ring to it but quickly pushed that thought out of mind.

"So, uh…well, Tomoyo, I have to talk to you about something." Meilin pushed Tomoyo out of the candy shop. Now, Sakura was stuck with the seven guys.

"Hey, I'm going to the arcade, whose coming?" Eriol walked to the door and all the guys followed.

"Well we can't just leave Sakura by herself. So, Syaoran, have fun." Eriol and the other five boys raced out of the shop to the arcade on the third floor before Syaoran could protest, leaving Sakura in a horrified expression and Syaoran giving his death glare.

Sakura immediately shut her mouth and began collecting candy again. Syaoran swiveled around and looked at the innocent girl before him. He pushed his hair back and walked up to Sakura.

"So, uh…what kind of candy do you like?" Syaoran looked down at the busy girl.

"Chocolate ones and sour ones…" Sakura answered happily. She looked up at Syaoran but realized that he was closer than she thought.

"Oh, cool, and by the looks of it, you really like white chocolate…" Syaoran grinned at the bulging bag of chocolate. Sakura looked at the bag.

"Oops…" Sakura poured some of it back in the box. Syaoran laughed at her innocence and absent-mindedness. Sakura pouted and Syaoran laughed even harder. Sakura and Syaoran both broke into a laugh, attracting everyone's attention. Sakura and Syaoran finally stopped after a minute or two.

"Syaoran, let's go!" Meilin shouted from outside. Tomoyo rejoined Sakura and smiled at Syaoran.

"Bye, Sakura, Tomoyo." Syaoran waved and ran out the door. Sakura stared at the door for awhile and Tomoyo raised an eyebrow.

"What's so interesting about that arch?" Tomoyo asked with a hint of sarcasm.

"He's cute and he smells good." Sakura answered. Tomoyo burst out laughing.

"Tomoyo, stop it. What's so funny? Everyone's staring at us. I think we've already attracted enough attention for today."

"I'm sorry, Sakura, it's just that I asked you what's interesting about the doorway and you said 'he's cute and smells good'. I just don't think doorways are cute or even smell good." Tomoyo kept giggling at Sakura's comment. Sakura focused on a little speck on the floor tiles and realized her mistake.

"Come on, Sakura, let's pay for your candy and go through the cute and good-smelling door." Tomoyo giggled every so often and Sakura finished shopping for presents after a few more hours, and Tomoyo fished her cell phone out.

"Yes, we're done shopping…okay, thanks." Tomoyo and Sakura walked to the front of the mall. The wind was blowing rather strongly and the rain was coming down really hard. Suddenly, a black limo pulled up the sidewalk. The driver ran to the two teenage girls and handed Tomoyo a purple umbrella. Tomoyo pointed it towards the ground and opened it up, swinging it above her head. Sakura joined her friend under the umbrella and walked to the limo, the rain tapping on the umbrella like bullets. Tomoyo and Sakura got into the limo and the driver placed the shopping bags on the black, leather couch beside the two girls and ran back to the driver's seat.

"Take us home, please." Tomoyo ordered the driver. The driver nodded at her and began driving out of the parking lot. Tomoyo closed the window thing that separated the limo so that the driver couldn't hear their conversation. Tomoyo leaned back on the couch and looked at Sakura, who was busy wiping her legs from the rainwater.

"Sakura, everybody can tell that you like Syaoran." Tomoyo blurted suddenly. For some reason, Tomoyo was itching to start that conversation again.

"Tomoyo, can we please drop it?"

"No, Sakura, why don't you just tell him? You've been crushing on him for three years already and I don't see your feelings going away anytime soon." Tomoyo protested. Tomoyo was determined to make Sakura tell Syaoran about her true feelings. She hated seeing her friend always thinking but never doing.

"Well, Tomoyo, if you have any idea of how I should get Syaoran to like me, please tell me. Otherwise, please leave it as it is. Syaoran and my relationship didn't change for three years. I would hate to see it break now, on the last year that I'll be seeing him." Sakura folded her arms over her chest and leaned back also. Now, Tomoyo could tell that Sakura was on the verge of getting mad at her if Tomoyo kept pushing her. Tomoyo sighed and stared out the window. The trees and stores were all coming into a hazy blur and the raindrops were sliding off the glass window as the wind kept blowing. Suddenly, a smile spread across Tomoyo's face. An idea had popped in Tomoyo's head and she was eager to share it with Sakura.

"Well, what if I can get you two together?" Sakura looked up at Tomoyo with confusion in her brilliant eyes. Tomoyo's smile kind of scared Sakura, she didn't really know if she wanted to know or not; knowing Tomoyo, it'd probably be something really risky.

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked Tomoyo. Tomoyo smiled and scooted over to her friend, closing the gap between them.

"I mean what if I can play matchmaker and actually get you two together?"

"Well, what if you can't?"

"Then I'll stop bothering you about Syaoran." Tomoyo blurted, not realizing what she just said. Tomoyo immediately regretted it but knew she couldn't take it back. Sakura smiled slyly, so sure that Tomoyo couldn't do it.

"Fine, Tomoyo, you have a deal. If you can get us together, thanks. But if you can't, you have to stop teasing me about it. And you have to do it before the Christmas Banquet." Sakura added.

"What? But that's three weeks!" Tomoyo panicked.

"I know, but I'm not going to let you use up all my senior year to get us together. And you were so sure of yourself. So, what is it going to be? Take it or leave it." Sakura smirked. Tomoyo thought for a while, battling with herself. What if she couldn't do it? Then she'd have to suffer all year, watching Sakura stare from afar. But what's life without a little adventure?

"Fine, I'll do it." Sakura smiled at Tomoyo's answer, "But…on one condition. You have to let me do anything to you to make Syaoran like you, even if it means a whole new makeover." Tomoyo added. Hey, why should Tomoyo be the only one dangling from a thin line?

"Fine, but you better keep your promise. You have to keep your mouth shut if you lose." Sakura warned. Tomoyo nodded and they both leaned back, relaxing as they both thought about what just happened, both of them rather worried about the whole idea.

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**Hi everybody. Well, this is my first story. Well I've read other stories and their reviews before so I know that even if I beg for you guys to be kind, a couple really harsh critics will not be kind so I won't even bother. But I just hope that you all like my story.**

**athena**


	2. Getting Started

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own CCS._

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**_Getting Started_**

"Ouch!" Sakura whispered to herself as she rolled off her comfortable bed. She reached for her pink cell phone and pressed the 'talk' button.

"Moshi-moshi..." Sakura mumbled into the phone quietly.

"Sakura, wake up! You have to come over to my house right now!" Sakura shut her eyes tightly and removed the small, cell phone away from her ear, far enough so that Sakura could still hear Tomoyo. When Tomoyo was finished shouting, Sakura placed the cell phone closer to her ear again.

"Tomoyo, it's only 6 in the morning…it's still dark out…" Sakura replied with a yawn. The sixteen-year-old girl pulled her blankets off the bed and covered herself with it to stop herself from shivering.

"I don't care! You need to come over to my house right now! There's something important that we need to do before school starts!" Sakura pulled the phone away from her ear once again and groaned.

"Fine, I'll be over in a couple minutes." Without another word, Sakura yawned again and ended the conversation with the press of a button. Sakura sat on the floor, back against the leg of her desk and was falling back to sleep.

"**Donna yume mite iru no? Wasuretakunai…**" Sakura reached out for her cell phone again as the song Amazing Kiss by Boa started playing.

"Moshi-moshi…" Sakura mumbled into her cell phone again.

"Sakura, wake up!" Sakura shook her head and groaned at Tomoyo's shrill voice. Sakura hung up on Tomoyo and tossed the blanket aside. She stood up, a bit unbalanced, and walked over to her dresser. She opened her first drawer and grabbed a pair of dark blue jeans, opened the second drawer and grabbed the first thing she touched-a pale pink, cotton camisole. Sakura opened the third drawer and grabbed a pair of clean underpants and a white bra. She gathered her clothes and walked to the bathroom down the hall and turned the shower on.

Sakura took a hot shower and when she finished, dried herself off, and blow-dried her soft, auburn hair. She brushed her teeth and washed her face. Then, Sakura got dressed in the bathroom and opened the door, letting the steam roll out of the bathroom. Sakura tiptoed back to her own bedroom and turned the light on. She threw her dirty clothes in the laundry basket by the door and made her bed. Sakura walked over to her closet and opened the door. She grabbed a puffy, pink jacket off the hanger and put it on. Sakura stuffed her cell phone back into her backpack and swung it over her shoulder. She turned the light switch off and walked downstairs to the kitchen. Sakura ripped a piece of paper from the notepad and grabbed a blue, fountain pen out from the pen/pencils cup on the clean counter.

"_I've gone to Tomoyo's house before school to do something. See you two later tonight._" At the end, Sakura even drew a little smiley face at the end and left the room. The tired girl began walking in the cold, windy morning to her friend's house. By 6:42, Sakura was standing in front of Tomoyo's house, shivering from the cold.

"Tomoyo, open up…" Sakura knocked on the huge doors again for the sixth time and finally, the door swung open and Sakura was pulled in with a great force. Sakura was rushed up to Tomoyo's room, and seated on Tomoyo's purple chair in front of the dressing table. Sakura looked up at her best friend.

"What's up, Tomoyo?" Sakura asked, yawning once again. Tomoyo smiled and opened the first drawer on her dressing table. She grabbed a bag out of the inside of the drawer and emptied it on the dressing table. A bunch of make-up poured onto the dressing table in front of Sakura. Sakura's eyes widened as she picked up a pair of eyelash curlers. Tomoyo slapped Sakura's hand and she immediately dropped the dangerous-looking utensil.

"Tomoyo, please lie and tell me that you didn't wake me up at 6 in the morning to get some make-up on me before school started because of Syaoran." Sakura looked up at Tomoyo pleadingly.

"Ok, that's easy enough. I didn't wake you up at 6 in the morning to get some make-up on you before school started because of Syaoran." Tomoyo smiled. Sakura sighed.

"Thank you…" Sakura said sarcastically before she let out a groan. Tomoyo spun Sakura's chair towards her and picked up a stick of black mascara. Tomoyo unscrewed the thin bottle and pulled the brush out. She applied the mascara onto Sakura's eyelashes, carefully not to get any on Sakura's skin. Tomoyo finished putting the mascara on and grabbed a compact of eye shadow with four different colors, each one a light color. Tomoyo grabbed the eye shadow brush from her bag and applied some white eye shadow on Sakura's eyelid.

"Stop moving, Sakura, or else I will mess up the make-up and have to do it all over again." With that, Sakura stopped. She hated having to sit there and let Tomoyo use her as a human-size doll. Sakura remembered when Tomoyo would always tackle Sakura just to get some lip gloss on her. Sakura sighed, thanking her lucky stars that Tomoyo had moved on from that phase.

Once Tomoyo finished applying the white eye shadow, she dabbed the brush gently on the pink color. She swept some pink onto Sakura's eyelid and blended the pink and white, making it seem a little, soft, angelic-pink. Tomoyo snapped the eye shadow compact close and grabbed the blush off the table. Tomoyo snatched the huge, blush brush and applied some pink blush on Sakura's cheeks. Not to overdo the blush, Tomoyo only used a little bit on each side and brushed the rest of it on Sakura's forehead and nose to give it a little more color. Tomoyo set the blush down and looked over all her make-up, thinking about what to put on next.

Tomoyo smiled and grabbed the pink lipstick. She smeared some pink on Sakura's lips like how artists painted beautiful masterpieces and closed the cap on the lipstick. Sakura thought that Tomoyo was done torturing her so she began spinning the chair back to the mirror to see what she looked like, but Tomoyo stopped her.

"I'm not done yet." Tomoyo protested and spun the chair back to face her. Sakura groaned for the third time since she's been at Tomoyo's house and next thing she knew, Sakura felt a cold, liquid being put on her lips over the lipstick. Tomoyo covered the pink lipstick with a coat of shiny, lip gloss. When Tomoyo was done, Sakura smacked her lips together, absolutely positive that if she kept her lips closed for too long, it would stay that way because the lip gloss was so sticky. Tomoyo smiled and turned the chair to face the mirror. Sakura looked into the clean mirror, not so sure that she was really staring at her own reflection.

"Oh my goodness, Tomoyo, you turned me into an angel!" Sakura squealed.

"Nonsense, Sakura, you were already an angel. But the power of make-up is great, I have to admit." Tomoyo smiled. Sakura and Tomoyo smiled at each other still surprised that Sakura looked so different now.

"Now, it's time for your outfit." Sakura stood up from the chair and stared at herself.

"What's wrong with the way I look?" Sakura asked. Tomoyo pulled Sakura over to the full-length mirror.

"Your make-up doesn't match your outfit." Sakura examined herself from the mirror. It was true. Sakura's outfit was fit for casual, but her make-up told the world that she meant business. Sakura looked up once again to find Tomoyo rummaging through her closet and dresser. Finally, Tomoyo through a few pieces of clothing on her clean bed and used the whole mix-and-match routine.

"Let's see. You'll wear a pink miniskirt with a pink camisole, and then layer your top with a white, button-up blouse." Tomoyo grabbed the pink miniskirt and white, button-up blouse and scurried Sakura into Tomoyo's bathroom.

"Be careful not to mess up your make-up!" Tomoyo shouted quickly to Sakura. Sakura unzipped her jacket and hung it on a hook at the back of the door. She threw the pair of jeans aside and slipped into Tomoyo's outfit. When Sakura was finished, she left the bathroom and Tomoyo squealed at seeing Sakura all pretty.

"Ok, let's do something with your hair." Tomoyo sat Sakura down on the chair again and Sakura realized that the make-up was replaced by elastic rubber bands, barrettes, and hair extensions. Tomoyo thought for a moment and finally decided on a hair style for Sakura. She grabbed Sakura's, long hair into a high ponytail and twisted it. She twisted it until it became a bun. Tomoyo tied it with a rubber band and stuck two, long chopsticks. The chopsticks were pink with emerald rhinestones decorating one end of it. When Tomoyo was finished playing with Sakura's hair, Sakura had a bun with two chopsticks, and a few strands of her auburn hair hanging loosely around her face.

"Ok, you're outfit is almost complete. We need to get some bling-bling on you." Tomoyo quickly threw the hair accessories back into the second drawer and opened the bottom drawer. She took out a box of shiny jewelry out and spread out the jewelry in different sections-the necklaces, bracelets, earrings, and rings.

"Let's see, for the necklace, we'll just have a plain, black choker." Tomoyo grabbed the choker among all the other tangled necklaces. Tomoyo handed the choker to Sakura and put the other necklaces back in the box. Tomoyo looked over all the bracelets and chose a silver bracelet with multi-colored gems embedded into it. She slipped the bracelet into Sakura's, left hand and began looking over the pairs of earrings again. Suddenly, Tomoyo had a great idea-to have different earrings for each ear. Tomoyo grabbed a hoop earring and hooked that onto Sakura's ear. She hooked a dangly earring on her other ear. The earring had three, pink cherry blossoms hanging off of each other. Once Tomoyo finished putting on the earrings, she looked over the rings. Tomoyo took a silver ring with a small diamond in the middle of the band and slipped it on the middle finger of Sakura's right hand.

"There, now you're all set for school. And just in time too, it's already 7:15. We'll go down to eat some breakfast and then get to school." Tomoyo suggested. Tomoyo stretched and yawned at her hard work and walked downstairs to the kitchen, leaving Sakura in her room. Sakura stared at herself in the mirror. Could this really be her? She looked like a completely different person. Who would've known that she had it in her? Of course, Tomoyo knew, but Sakura was really surprised by all this.

"_My best friend has just turned me into an angel._" Sakura thought. She smiled at herself and walked downstairs to rejoin her friend.

"Hey, Sakura, what do you want to eat?" Tomoyo called from the kitchen as Sakura passed the doorway.

"I don't really feel like eating right now. I don't want to ruin your hard work right now." Sakura said as she smiled. She sat down on the kitchen counter and Tomoyo sat down with a bowl of cereal. Sakura and Tomoyo sat there silently with Tomoyo sipping on the milk from her cereal. Suddenly, Mrs. Daidouji came downstairs. Her hair was a mess and she was in a baby blue robe and walking in a pair of white slippers.

"Oh, hello, Sakura, it's so nice to see you here so early in the morning. And you look beautiful today." Mrs. Daidouji smiled as she walked to the coffee machine on the counter. The middle-aged woman helped herself to making a hot cup of strong coffee in the morning. Tomoyo set the bowl and spoon in the sink and gave her mom a hug. Tomoyo and Sakura ran upstairs, grabbed their stuff, and left the house at exactly 7:30. This time, the two girls didn't wait for the driver; Tomoyo took the metallic purple convertible, with the top up, and drove it to school. They got to school with fifteen minutes to spare and parked the car. The two girls walked in the school and headed straight for their lockers. Tomoyo's locker was only three lockers down from Sakura, so they were pretty close. Sakura spun her locker dial and went over the combination in her head. She heard a soft click and the locker popped open. Sakura grabbed her books for first class and dumped it into her backpack, careful not to crush anything.

"Hey, loser, get out of our way…" Of course, every high school has cliques. If it didn't have different groups, it wouldn't be considered a high school. Sakura slammed her locker shut and turned around to see Reiko, the most popular girl in school, push a nerd aside just to get her way through the halls. Sakura shook her head and waited for the whole popular crowd to pass before she helped the nerd up.

"Taro, are you okay? That wasn't very nice of Reiko…" Sakura helped the boy up and shook her head. Taro thanked her with his stuffy nose and walked away. Sakura watched him leave and head back to Tomoyo.

"I hate it when Reiko does that." Sakura expressed her feelings to Tomoyo loud enough so that only her friend could hear it. Tomoyo nodded in agreement and they both started walking to their first class, history.

Sakura dumped her backpack on the floor beside her desk and slid into her cold chair. Tomoyo did the same to the desk beside Sakura and looked at her.

"So, what do you think of the new makeover I gave you?" Tomoyo smiled, knowing that Sakura loved it but wanted to hear it for herself.

"I love it, Tomoyo, thanks so much." Sakura smiled back. Sakura shook her head slightly. Suddenly, she saw a few people walk in the classroom. Sakura looked up and saw that it was Syaoran. Sakura almost stopped breathing for a moment. Her heart started beating faster until Tomoyo put a hand on Sakura's shoulder. Sakura smiled at Tomoyo and leaned back in her seat. This was the ultimate test-to see whether Tomoyo's makeover worked or not. Sakura figured that if she made an effort for him to see her, she'd seem like a spotlight-lover. And if he liked her at all, he would notice her without her doing anything. But to not notice Sakura wasn't an option with Tomoyo around. Suddenly, Tomoyo squealed.

"Oh my goodness, Sakura, you look so kawaii today! Even without my help…" Tomoyo shouted so that everyone could hear her. Even the people in the hallway stopped by to take a quick look at Sakura. Sakura wanted to disappear from her seat as Tomoyo smiled brightly.

"_Tomoyo, I'm going to kill you for this…_" Sakura thought to herself. Suddenly, Sakura caught a glimpse of Syaoran out of the corner of her eye. He was staring at her with absolute interest. Tomoyo's plan actually worked…but that doesn't give her the pass to stay alive. Suddenly, Sakura could've sworn she was hallucinating but she thought Syaoran and his friends were walking towards her.

"Koniichiwa, Sakura …" She wasn't dreaming! Syaoran had just said 'hi' to her! Sakura smiled back at him.

"Koniichiwa, Syaoran …" Sakura blushed a little bit but it was hard to tell with her make-up being darker than her natural blush.

"Wow, Sakura, you look beautiful today." Eriol complimented her before Syaoran could say anything. Sakura could've sworn she saw a little glare in Syaoran's eyes when he looked at Eriol.

"Thank you, Eriol." Sakura smiled. Sakura looked down at her desk, blushing again as everyone else kept staring at her. Tomoyo glanced up at Syaoran and back at Sakura. She could tell that Sakura's beauty had captured Syaoran's gaze. Tomoyo smiled secretly and knew that her plan was working. In a couple minutes, the bell rang and class started. Syaoran took one last look at Sakura before sitting down at the other side of the room. The teacher walked in the room, setting his briefcase flat on the desk and opening it. A couple papers flew out and landed on the desk as the teacher sat down in his chair. He blew a couple strands of loose hair back to the top of his head and pushed his glasses up.

"Alright, students, turn in your homework from last night." Yamamoto-Sensei announced to the class. The class quieted down and took their seats. In a couple minutes, papers started shuffling and a couple "ouches" were heard as a few students got paper cuts. Tomoyo grabbed last night's homework from her bag and passed it up to the person in front of her. She glanced over at Syaoran and smiled at him, thinking that he was looking at her. But when Syaoran didn't smile back or look away, Tomoyo realized that he was staring at Sakura. Tomoyo smiled and leaned back in her chair so that Syaoran could get a clearer view without leaning over his desk. Tomoyo felt so proud of herself at that moment, she had turned her friend into a 'goddess' in about half an hour. Tomoyo was immediately drifting off to dreamland. She was thinking about Sakura and Syaoran together.

"_Aww that would just be amazing cute…_" Tomoyo thought. There were so many things that Tomoyo could think of to keep her mind busy.

"_What would their wedding be like? Actually, I think pink and green don't look good together. That'd be disaster-clashing colors on a wedding day! Oh, well, Tomoyo, it's alright, you can help them out. Oh my goodness, their children would look so cute! They'd be like little Sakura and Syaoran clones!_" And that was only a sample of Tomoyo's thoughts; surely, you wouldn't want to go any deeper into what Tomoyo was thinking. Well, those thoughts kept Tomoyo busy for quite some time. When Tomoyo's head was just about to explode with all her thoughts about Sakura and Syaoran, the bell rang. Tomoyo had missed the whole class lecture! She had missed the homework too. Oh well, that's what friends are for.

"Hey, Sakura, what was the homework?" Tomoyo asked as they passed through the doorway. Tomoyo glanced back at the teacher, almost positive that he sighed and shook his head at her. Little Ms. I-Don't-Pay-Attention-In-Class turned back to her friend, waiting for her homework report.

"We have to read chapter 32. Where were you?" Sakura asked, opening her locker. Tomoyo smiled sheepishly and wrote down the homework on her purple notebook. She dumped the notebook back in her bag.

"I was off in dreamland." Tomoyo smiled; eager to tell Sakura what she was dreaming about, but only if she asked. And according to her predictions, Sakura asked what dreams she had.

"Well, I was dreaming about you and Syaoran together. I think you two would be a great couple." Tomoyo squealed silently, only loud enough for Sakura to hear. Sakura slammed the locker shut with a loud bang and turned to Tomoyo.

"Are you kidding me? You spent the whole class time thinking about a stupid thing like that?" Sakura shouted her question to Tomoyo, a little too loud. Now, all the students who were passing by leaned in a little closer to listen to what they were talking about. It seems that everyone was interested in eavesdropping today.

"You know what, mind your own business." Sakura shot glares at the passersby and grabbed Tomoyo's arm as they squeezed through the moving crowd. Tomoyo mouthed "sorry" to all the students that she passed by because of her friend's sudden rudeness.

"You know, Sakura, you didn't have to shout in my ear. I was only a couple inches next to you." Tomoyo pointed out as they climbed up the stairs to second period. Sakura was still pulling on Tomoyo, but with a lighter grip. Sakura and Tomoyo trudged through the hallways, passing by teachers with black coffee and students with crumpled-up homework. Sakura reached the classroom for second period and pushed the door open. She sat down at the back of the class with Tomoyo and turned to her so that they could continue their conversation.

"What's the problem with dreaming during class? You do it all the time."

"Well, Tomoyo, it's different when you're dreaming about who your friend is going to end up with." Sakura pouted as she leaned back into her chair. Sakura started tapping her toes against the floor in a very, very annoyed manner.

"I don't see the difference. And don't tell me you've never thought about it for m…Michi." Tomoyo was just about to say "me" but thought better of it. She didn't want Sakura getting any ideas. But even though she was quick at changing the name, Sakura caught her mistake and began smiling slyly.

"Sakura, I don't like that look of yours. It scares me…" Tomoyo stated. Sakura looked kind of sweet and evil all at the same time, which makes it even scarier. It's like a cross between a perfect, little angel with an evil, mischievous grin.

"You know, Tomoyo, I think Eriol and you would look rather sweet together too." Sakura smiled.

"Now, Sakura, remember, this isn't about me. This is about you. It began that way and I intend to end it that way." Tomoyo warned the girl sitting next to her. Sakura shrugged and that idea quickly disappeared, or at least it was pushed to the back of her mind. Sakura looked to the front of the class and already saw the teacher and students settled in their desks.

"_Wow, time sure flies by when you're talking to your friends, or making fun of them._" Sakura smiled, but it was no time to play around. Second period was the most dreaded class of all, it was math. Sakura hated math and everyone knew that. Sakura was also fairly bad at math.

"Alright, I graded all your tests and well, let's just say that only 4 or 5 of you passed. And that's pretty bad for a full class of 24. So, Li, please pass out these tests back to everyone for me. Then I will begin explaining what we're going to do today, to help you guys get the concept through your heads." Syaoran walked up to the front of the class and the teacher handed the papers to him. The playboy began handing the papers back to the students, when suddenly, a hand shot up from the front of the class.

"Nakamura-Sensei, which ones of us passed?"

"Well, Matsumoto, I believe that is a secret that's for me to know and you to not know." The teacher sat down in his seat and began tapping his desk with his fingertips, making a loud, tapping noise.

"Thank you, Li. Now, class, we'll be getting into groups of two so that we can help each other with our problems today, one-on-one. I've paired up the smartest with the least smart. I'm pretty sure you know who you are so I'll be calling out the teams now. And these are in random order that I'm calling out, so don't assume that the first name is the least smart or the smartest." Everyone groaned at the idea of the teacher pairing the students up. Everybody knew that if they paired with their friends, they would just be busy chattering about life and things other than math, but that didn't mean that they'd have to socialize with someone that they hated.

"Kato and Ito …Mochizuki and Hayashi …Daidouji and Hiiragizawa …Suzuki and Kudo …Kinomoto and Li…" Sakura looked up and her eyes met with Syaoran's as Nakamura-Sensei kept calling out the names. Syaoran got up and grabbed his things. He began walking his way to Sakura and Sakura looked up to the ceiling.

"_Oh no…_" It's not really that Sakura didn't want to work with him. She just didn't like having to talk to him one-on-one. She was even a bit edgy and nervous yesterday until they were laughing at her in the mall. Syaoran took Tomoyo's seat as she got up to sit by Eriol. He moved the desk so that it was facing Sakura.

"Uh…Sakura, in order for me to help you, you kind of have to be facing me." Syaoran pointed out. So, he decided to be Captain Obvious today. Sakura flashed him a half smile and turned the desk a little to face him. Now their desks were completely facing each other and Syaoran was looking over Sakura's math test while Sakura was looking at Syaoran's hair, since his face was staring at the test.

"_How does he keep his hair like that? I mean he has a way to keep it messy, but to a point that it looks cool on him. Unlike some other people, messy hair doesn't seem to fit them._" Sakura kept staring at his perfect hair, without any knowledge whatsoever how funny she looked as she was chewing her pencil's eraser until Syaoran spoke up.

"Sakura, I think you're going to need that eraser if you're going to redo these problems." Syaoran laughed. Sakura looked at her tiny, pink eraser and looked at the test in Syaoran's hand.

"Is it really that bad?" Sakura asked nervously. Syaoran looked up at her and raised an eyebrow.

"Didn't you see your test yet?" Syaoran asked. Sakura shook her head as she stared at her pencil.

"I didn't really want to see my grade since Nakamura-Sensei basically shouted my grade to the whole class when he said that only 4 or 5 students passed. And I know that I'm not part of that 4 or 5." Sakura answered, shamefully.

"Well, I don't think I'm going to be able to help you with all of your problems in ½ an hour, but I'll try." Syaoran sighed and leaned towards Sakura a little. He picked up his pencil and pointed to the first problem. While Syaoran focused on that one section of the test, Sakura was focusing on the whole paper. It was almost completely covered in red that it was hard to see where Sakura made any marks on the paper at all. Nakamura-Sensei was, once again, very generous with using up his whole, red pen to grade Sakura's paper. If anyone looked closely at the math teacher's, utensils cup on his desk, they can see a couple, red pens with a piece of tape over it with Sakura's name printed on it. The pens weren't necessarily hers, but those pens were especially booked to use on Sakura's, math tests. No joke.

"So here, you only made this little mistake here. I think you subtracted when you were supposed to add…" Syaoran answered. Sakura groaned at her stupid mistake.

"Well, let's see. You missed problem #4 because '3x' doesn't equal '9' if the 'x6'." Syaoran snickered as Sakura started groaning even louder this time. Of all the ways Syaoran and Sakura had to engage in a serious conversation, it had to be about Sakura's troubles with math. Sakura dropped her head on her desk with a huge thud and groaned. Fortunately, time flies by really quickly when you're studying with the person that you like. The bell rang and everyone got up to leave the classroom.

"Bye, Sakura." Syaoran waved to her as he ran out of the classroom to catch up with his crew. Sakura crumpled her paper and threw it into her bag, struggling with herself to make it into her backpack, instead of the garbage can. Suddenly, she felt a force pull her up and spin her around.

"Sakura, how was it!" A pair of glittering, dark purple eyes stared at her.

"How was what?" Sakura stared back with her shining, green eyes. She bent back down to zip her backpack and swung it over her shoulder, slipping her right arm through the strap.

"You know what I'm talking about-the whole, 'math' conversation with Syaoran." Tomoyo used her fingers to emphasize the word "math" with air quotation marks as the two friends walked out the math room.

"What about it? He told me how bad I was doing in math and I listened to him, groaning once or twice…" Sakura thought back to the conversation.

"Or maybe it was more than once…" Sakura thought aloud.

"What! So you mean you guys only talked about math! No flirting, no talking about the Christmas Banquet or anything like that?" Tomoyo asked, flabbergasted. Sakura giggled at her reaction as she grabbed her English and Chemistry book from her locker. She dropped them in her bag and zipped it up. Sakura closed the locker and they began walking to third period. When they passed by the vending machine, Sakura dug in her pockets for some money but couldn't find any.

"Tomoyo, do you have any money? I want to get a candy bar." Sakura pleaded. Tomoyo shook her head.

"Why don't you ask Syaoran? He's loaded and he's right there. I'm pretty sure he'd buy you something if you asked." Tomoyo smiled. Sakura took a glimpse at Syaoran and looked back at Tomoyo.

"No, that's okay. I guess I'm not that hungry after all." Sakura gave Tomoyo a nervous smile. Tomoyo shook her head.

"_I have to do everything myself._" Tomoyo thought and she looked up at Sakura with a fake-caring expression.

"Aww…Sakura, you don't have any money for a candy bar? I'm sorry; I don't have any money that you can borrow." Suddenly, dozens of hands came in and Sakura noticed that each hand was holding a bit of change for the candy bar. Sakura looked up at Tomoyo. Tomoyo looked away from Sakura with a knowing smile. Suddenly, Syaoran came through the thick crowd and inserted a dollar into the vending machine.

"What do you want, Sakura?" Syaoran asked with a smile. Sakura turned to him and looked through the scratched-up glass to choose from the wide selection.

"Uh…Hershey's…" Sakura answered shyly. She hadn't expected Syaoran to do this. All the other boys made faces at him and walked away. The chocolate, candy bar slowly dropped to the bottom with a clunking sound. Syaoran slipped his hand into the dirty machine and pulled the bar of chocolate out. He handed the snack to Sakura and she took it gratefully.

"Thank you, Syaoran." Sakura thanked him with a small piece of chocolate in her mouth. Syaoran flashed a smile and walked away with Eriol's arm around his shoulders. Sakura stared at Syaoran as he walked away and Tomoyo smiled at Sakura.

"Come on, Sakura, it's time for English." Tomoyo put her left arm around Sakura's shoulder and they walked to third period. Tomoyo knew immediately that her plan was working. Tomoyo and Sakura walked into the classroom and sat down. Since there was nothing to talk about during English or Chemistry, Tomoyo and Sakura just took notes of the class. Sakura would take notes during math but what notes can you take? Math is math. It's just hard to take notes when the formulas change all the time. Math has so many ways of solving one problem and you'd get the problem wrong if you used the wrong method. Well, after the first four periods, it was time for lunch.

The students of Seiju High walked around the campus, sitting wherever they liked and eating whatever they liked. A few students would always stay inside to work on their homework so that they had free time after school. A few couples would walk around the campus, hand in hand and talk about things. And everyone else was pretty much scattered around patches of grass, sitting under the shade of the trees or the tall building. But Sakura and Tomoyo decided to sit under a cherry-blossom tree while eating lunch. For some reason, Sakura seemed attached to cherry-blossoms.

"So, what do you have for lunch, Sakura?" Tomoyo asked as she took her brown, paper bag out.

"I don't have a lunch." Sakura answered as she leaned on the tree trunk of the tree. Tomoyo looked up at her.

"Why not…?" Tomoyo asked as she opened her Tupperware of pasta. It was leftovers from yesterday night's dinner. Apparently, her family had ordered too much food and couldn't finish it, so Tomoyo was being forced to relive dinner memories with her pasta.

"Oh, gee, I don't know. Oh, maybe it was because somebody called me at 6 in the morning to go to their house so then they could put a bunch of gunk on my face, so that I didn't have time to prepare a lunch." Sakura gave Tomoyo a little glare and pouted, folding her arms over her stomach to keep it from growling too loudly.

"I'm sorry, Sakura; but you have to admit, it was worth it all at the end, right?" Tomoyo stuffed a forkful of delicious pasta in her mouth and looked at Sakura again. Sakura sighed and nodded her head. Suddenly, her stomach rumbled a bit too loudly that Sakura couldn't hold it in.

"I'm so hungry…" Sakura whined. Tomoyo grabbed another fork from her bag and was about to give some of her pasta to Sakura when Sakura pushed it back.

"But I'm not really in the mood for pasta either…"

"Picky…picky…picky…" Tomoyo shook her head disapprovingly. Sakura stuck her tongue out at Tomoyo and looked up, clutching her stomach. From a distance, Sakura could see a couple figures heading towards them.

"Is that Meilin, Eriol, and Syaoran?" Sakura gasped. Tomoyo nodded and made some room for the three to join them.

"May we join you two?" Meilin asked, her midnight-black pigtails swaying in the wind. Eriol pushed his glasses up and took a seat right between Tomoyo and Sakura. Then the only space left was between Meilin and Sakura, which was left for Syaoran. Too bad, Sakura was too oblivious to see that Tomoyo, Meilin, and Eriol totally meant for that to work that way.

"So, why are you two sitting under this tree all by yourselves?" Meilin started the conversation with her blazing, red eyes.

"Oh, we were just talking about how Sakura doesn't have a lunch."

"I'm sorry, Sakura, I would give you some of my sandwich, but I've already finished ¾ of it." Meilin explained. Now, Tomoyo and Meilin were off the hook.

"Yeah, I would give you some of my teriyaki chicken and rice but I only have one fork." Eriol excused himself. Everyone looked at Syaoran and he looked at every one of them, jumping from Meilin to Tomoyo, Tomoyo to Eriol, and finally to Sakura.

"Here, Sakura, you can have some of my sushi." Syaoran reluctantly gave up his food. Sakura looked over at Tomoyo, who immediately nudged Meilin.

"Well now that Sakura has her food, let's talk about something else." Tomoyo took another bite of her pasta and looked up again.

"Yeah, so, who are you going to the Christmas Banquet with, Tomoyo?" Meilin asked, changing the subject. It seemed that Meilin and Tomoyo were the only two who actually wanted to talk, but Eriol seemed rather interested in this subject too, judging by the way he reacted to Meilin's question. He was about to shove a forkful of food into his mouth when he brought it back out at Meilin's question, looking at Tomoyo.

"Well, nobody yet but maybe I'll find somebody last minute." Tomoyo hinted to Eriol. Sakura, Syaoran, and Meilin all smiled.

"_Oh, for goodness sake's, why don't they just admit that they like each other?_" The three outsiders thought frustrated.

"And you, Meilin?"

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe I'll just go with a bunch of my friends." Meilin answered coolly. Now, it was for the big question that everybody had been waiting for.

"And you, Sakura?" Sakura looked up from her California rolls at Meilin's question.

"Oh, uh…well, I might just go alone. Nobody's asked yet." Sakura answered shyly. Even though Sakura was looking down, she could see Meilin jabbing an elbow into Syaoran's ribs which Sakura thought was hilarious, but she held her laughter inside until it went back down her throat.

"So, Eriol, are you going to ask anybody to the banquet?" Sakura asked with a smile. She could feel Tomoyo glaring at her but she didn't care. It's about time Tomoyo knew how it felt when she did that to Syaoran and her.

"Well, I'm planning to ask somebody but I didn't yet." Eriol replied, his cheeks turning a little pinkish.

"Oh right, Syaoran, didn't you say last night that you were going to ask somebody too?" Meilin turned the spotlight on Syaoran.

"No, I said that Reiko asked me to the banquet. I didn't ask anybody yet and I don't know who to ask, I mean there are a lot of girls here at Seiju High." Syaoran answered with no expressions whatsoever without looking up from his sushi, which means that he couldn't see Sakura's face sadden. The other three saw Sakura's immediate change of mood.

"Uh…I almost forgot-I needed to see Nakamura-Sensei for…uh…something." Sakura excused herself from the base of the cherry blossom tree. She stood up and left the group, she could feel little drops of tears forming, but they didn't fall. You could say that she was great at holding them back.

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**Was that fast enough for you guys? And thanks for the reviews, everybody. Oh and by the way, just to clear things up-sorry if the characters seem out of character. I don't really read or watch CCS, I just read the fanfics and I wrote the story with their own personalities. Well, I hope you guys like it and continue reading it. Thankies!!!**

**athena**


	3. Progress

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own CCS._

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_**Progress**_

_Hey Diary,_

_Well it's been two weeks since Tomoyo decided to get Syaoran to ask me to the Christmas Banquet. We can both tell that there is some progress, but not enough to a point that Syaoran has asked me yet. Hopefully he will. Well, for the past two weeks, Syaoran and my relationship has been going smoothly. I think Tomoyo's makeover really helped. She hasn't been doing the treatments every morning to me because I don't pick up my cell phone in the morning for her anymore. Tomoyo just gave up, basically, for the whole makeup-early-in-the-morning thing. Here are some examples of how Syaoran's relationship and mine has changed:_

_He drove me to school when he saw me running to school because there was only five minutes left until school started and also, because I was at least three blocks away._

_Then, Tomoyo, Meilin, and I went shopping with each other last Saturday, and I guess Meilin pulled Syaoran along to hold her bags. I was running out of Christmas shopping money and Tomoyo and Meilin didn't really want to pay for my smoothie, so Syaoran ended up paying for me._

_One day, it was raining and nobody would give me a ride and I forgot my umbrella, so Syaoran walked me home. But I could've sworn I saw his forest-green car in the parking lot behind a white van. Maybe I'm thinking too much but I think he wanted us to have a long walk home. I mean he stopped every once in a while just to tie his shoe, and fix his hair and stuff._

_Tomoyo was sick the other day and Meilin didn't go to school for some reason so I was all alone during the whole day. But Syaoran hung out with me all day, even though his own friends were at school._

_So I definitely think there's progress in our relationship or maybe I'm just thinking too much. Well I sure hope he asks me soon because time is running out and Tomoyo and I know that. Well I gotta go or else Touya will come upstairs and drag me downstairs to eat dinner._

_XOXO,_

_Sakura_

Sakura hid her diary away at the back of her bookshelf and ran downstairs to eat dinner.

"So what are we eating today?" Sakura asked. Touya looked up from his magazine and Sakura's dad placed the pot of spaghetti on the center of the table.

"Spaghetti and meatballs…" Touya threw the magazine into the magazine rack and grabbed his fork. Sakura sat down and they all scooped strands of spaghetti onto their plates.

"Itadakimasu…" The family of three announced and dug into their plates. A couple minutes later, the phone rang and Sakura ran to pick it up.

"Moshi-moshi…"

"Sakura, Eriol just asked me to banquet!" Tomoyo shouted through the receiver.

"Ouch, Tomoyo, congratulations…" Sakura smiled as she rubbed her ear.

"Well I just wanted to tell you that. So I'll leave you alone now, bye!" The two girls hung up and Sakura went back to her seat.

"Who was that?"

"Tomoyo…"

"What's the matter?"

"Oh, she just wanted to tell me that Eriol asked her to the Christmas Banquet." Sakura slurped some more spaghetti and licked the tomato sauce off the corner of her lips.

"Well I'm done!" Sakura dumped her plate and fork into the sink just as Touya got seconds.

"Arigato-gozaimasu…" Sakura gave her dad a hug and ran back to her room. She got into bed and fell into a deep sleep about Syaoran.

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**Sorry that this chapter is SO short but my friend was really bothering me about putting up the third chapter so I did. And school has been frying and washing my brain with finals so I couldn't really think about anything to write...But I promise that my last chapters will be longer and better! Stay tuned!**

**athena**


	4. Christmas Banquet

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own CCS.**

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**_Christmas Banquet_**

Sakura twisted the phone line around her fingers as she held the receiver.

"Ok, Syaoran, bye, see you later." Sakura answered, semi-cheerfully. She hung up and swiveled around to run up to her room to get ready for the Christmas Banquet.

"Who was that?" Touya appeared in front of Sakura all of a sudden and stopped her. Sakura looked up at her brother and shrugged.

"Uh…wrong number." Sakura replied with a little lie. She was about to run upstairs when Touya spoke up again.

"Well that was a pretty long conversation, almost about fifteen minutes." Touya glanced at his watch. Sakura turned around to face Touya again.

"Are you timing my conversations now?" Sakura placed her hands on her hips and Touya shrugged, not the least bit ashamed of his doings.

"Well, for your information, you don't need to know so don't worry about it." Sakura ran upstairs and shut her bedroom door.

"Let's see, Sakura, what should you where to Christmas Banquet tonight?" Sakura opened her closet and looked through her many dresses. Her search landed on a beautiful, white dress. A smile formed on Sakura's face as she took it off the white hanger. The dress felt light in her hands as she placed it neatly on her messy bed. Sakura sat down in front of her desk and placed the small, desk mirror in front of her. She grabbed some lip gloss and applied two, thin coats of clear lip gloss on her soft lips. She added a dash of sparkly, light pink eye shadow and a splash of blush. She pulled her hair up into a ponytail and fastened it up with a barrette, which made the ends of her auburn tresses come out like a fountain. Sakura slipped into the dress and looked at herself in the mirror.

Sakura felt a sudden joy come over her. Her dress looked beautiful on her. The dress was a halter dress with a slanted hem starting from her left knee that reached halfway down her right leg, and semi-transparent sashes hanging from her left hip. The top-half of her dress was simple with thin, spaghetti straps wrapping around her neck. Sakura grabbed her small, white handbag and lightly placed a white wrap around her arms. She walked downstairs slowly, careful not to trip.

"Sakura, you look absolutely beautiful…" Fujitaka complimented as he snapped a photo of his daughter.

"Yeah, I can barely see your monster form." Touya teased. Sakura glared but let it pass by since she needed to get to that prom. She slipped her feet into her white, strapped sandals.

"Touya, be nice to your sister while you're driving her there." Fujitaka waved from the doorway as Touya and Sakura got into the car.

"Okay, dad, see you later." Touya drove out of the driveway and began the fifteen minute trip to school. Sakura took her accessories out of her purse and laid them on her lap. She secured the cherry blossom necklace around her neck, slipped the diamond bracelets onto her hands, hung two, starry earrings on her ears, and placed a loose, silver anklet around her left ankle. By the time she was finished, they were already in front of the school, considering the fact that she was rather clumsy with putting on the jewelry in a bumpy ride.

"Thanks, Touya, see you tonight." Sakura waved and Touya drove away, wondering who Sakura's date was.

"Sakura, you look absolutely kawaii!" Sakura walked in the huge, decorated gym and was immediately greeted by Tomoyo and Meilin.

"Thanks, you two look great too." Sakura smiled as she looked at their beautiful gowns. Tomoyo's tube dress was lavender and it was adorned with random rhinestones all over it. And Meilin's was a red, cultural, Chinese dress with gold rimming. The three looked great.

"Wow, Sakura, you look gorgeous." Eriol handed a cup of punch to Tomoyo.

"Yeah, Eriol, she looks absolutely stunning." Another boy handed a cup of punch to Meilin.

"Meilin, you're date is Hiroshi? You two look cute together." Sakura complimented back.

"Don't we?" Meilin leaned closer to Hiroshi and smiled. Suddenly, the gym doors opened and Syaoran came in.

"Hey, you guys, wow, you three look great." Syaoran stared at the three girls standing there. Of course, the most eye-catching one was Sakura.

"So, Syaoran, why don't you get a cup of punch for your date?" Eriol urged. Tomoyo and Meilin gave each other a knowing glance. Apparently, Syaoran didn't tell any of them who their date was. They all had a person in mind but they wanted him to tell them himself.

"Yeah, I think I'll go do that now." Syaoran walked over to the punch bowl and poured two cups of punch. Tomoyo and Meilin gave Sakura a little push towards Syaoran, but Sakura managed to stop herself. To Eriol, Tomoyo, Meilin, and Hiroshi's surprise, Syaoran grabbed the two cups, walked over to Kairi, and handed the extra cup to her. The four, out-of-the-loop seniors stared at Syaoran and then to Sakura in shock. They were sure that Sakura would run away in tears by now.

"Syaoran's date…is…Kairi!" Tomoyo squealed. They all looked at Sakura again, but she didn't seem surprised.

"Did you know about this, Sakura?" Meilin asked.

"Yeah…he didn't ask me, I know that much." Sakura shrugged and smiled. Nobody could tell if that was a fake smile or a real one. Sakura had been getting good at hiding it lately.

"I'm so sorry, Sakura …" Tomoyo placed a hand on Sakura's shoulder.

"It's alright, you guys; I'm fine. Come on, this is a dance, let's go have some fun!" Sakura pulled the four into the dance floor and began dancing.

"I guess since Sakura doesn't feel sad about this, neither should we…" Hiroshi suggested. Well, if anyone was to feel hurt or sad, it should be Sakura. The others agreed and began to party, but none of them really felt like it. But for Sakura, they put on a great show.

"Whew, that was exhausting." Sakura took a deep breath and slumped down to a chair beside her four friends. The others stared at her, still clinging to the thought that Sakura was hiding her true feelings underneath her beauty.

When everyone was busy staring at the tired Sakura, Syaoran and Kairi came to join them.

"Hi, you guys." Kairi smiled cheerfully.

"Hey, Kairi, you look beautiful!" Sakura complimented with a smile. Kairi was wearing a purple, silk dress that matched her eyes. The dress was held up by spaghetti straps. And Kairi's brunette hair passed her shoulders by a little, and there were random strands of wavy hair. Kairi smiled and wrapped her arms around Syaoran's arm.

"Thanks, Syaoran bought it with me. You look great too, Sakura."

"Thanks." Sakura smiled.

"_Kairi's such a nice girl. She does deserve Syaoran. She's fun, beautiful, innocent, and loveable. Anybody would choose her._" Sakura thought to herself. Her smile came from the heart, yet her heart was pounding. She still loved Syaoran but she didn't want Syaoran to be uncomfortable about bringing Kairi to the prom.

"Syaoran, why don't you ask Kairi for a dance?" Sakura urged. She pushed the couple to the middle of the dance floor before he could protest.

"And just in time too, a romantic song." Sakura smiled and left the dance floor.

"That was really nice of you, Sakura." Eriol gave Sakura an encouraging smile.

"Hey, this dance is bogus, let's get out of here and get a real party going back at my place." Tomoyo suggested. They all agreed and left the gym. Sakura turned back to look back one more time.

"**You were my strength when I was weak; you were my voice when I couldn't speak; you were my eyes when I couldn't see; you saw the best there was in me; lifted me up when I couldn't reach; you gave me faith 'coz you believed; I'm everything I am, because you loved me…**" The song echoed away into the night as a black limo drove away to Tomoyo's house.

"Touya, no, the dance isn't over yet. But I'm going to Tomoyo's house right now because we wanted to leave the dance…because it was getting boring. So we ditched…whatever…anyway, you don't have to pick me up. I'll get a ride later, bye." Sakura hung up and dropped the phone back in her purse. When they reached Tomoyo's house, they walked in.

"Don't worry, you guys, my mom's out of town tonight." Tomoyo let them in and they grabbed some snacks and soda from the kitchen, cranked up the music, and dimmed the lights.

"This is the greatest prom ever!" Meilin shouted over the music as they all danced right in the middle of the living room. They all nodded their heads but nobody could really tell because it seemed like they were just dancing. But even if it was a bad prom, for Sakura's sake, they'd agree. But it was the truth, it was probably the most fun any of them had all night.

At midnight, the music stopped because they were afraid the neighbors might call up the cops.

"Well, I guess this is goodnight. Wow, the night sure went by pretty quickly." Sakura looked up at the starry, night sky. She looked back at her friends. But they were too busy giving each other goodnight kisses and hugs that they didn't realize she had said anything. Sakura just leaned back into the cold wall until they finished.

"Hey, Sakura, I'll give you a ride home if you want." Eriol offered. Sakura nodded and they all said goodbye to Tomoyo before she went to bed. Hiroshi drove Meilin home as Eriol drove Sakura home.

"Hey, Sakura, that was a pretty cool thing you did back at the prom, you know." Eriol stared at the road, not even looking at Sakura. He didn't know how he should face her when his best friend had just totally blown her off like that.

"Thanks." Sakura had to admit, that was the hardest thing she'd done in her life. She had to share Syaoran with somebody even though this was probably the last chance she'd ever have with Syaoran again since there weren't anymore dances for the rest of the school year.

"You know, Sakura, I think you're an amazing person. I mean, you're beautiful, friendly, kind, innocent, forgiving, loveable, and you can deal with all of Tomoyo's 'artistic' phases. I think the last one counts for 50 points, right there." Sakura laughed at Eriol's comment.

"Hey, you're laughing. I haven't seen you laugh like this all night." Eriol pointed out.

"Thanks, Eriol, I needed that laugh." Sakura smiled.

"Well, Sakura, here's your house and your hug for the day." Eriol leaned over and gave Sakura a hug. Sakura hugged back and smiled. She opened the car door and started to the house door. When she got to the door, she realized that she left her purse in his car.

"Sure, you can be absent-minded sometimes, but I still say those 7 things make up most of your personality." Eriol through the bag at her through the window and she caught it. Sakura laughed and Eriol left the driveway.

"Thanks, Eriol, you've made me really happy tonight." Sakura said to herself as she watched his car go into the distance. She opened the door into the house and closed it behind her.

"So, Sakura, you're late." Sakura jumped as the light flickered on and Touya's voice came out from behind her.

"Gomen-nasai, traffic..." Sakura lied as she walked up to her room.

"So how was the prom? Who was your date? Who took you home?" Touya asked.

"Uh…let's see…the prom was good; Eriol took me home…was that it? Yup, I guess so…Goodnight." Sakura ran up the rest of the stairs and was about to open the door when Touya gave a little cough.

"Fur-ball, Touya, you should really get that checked up." Sakura said sarcastically.

"And who was your date?" Touya coughed again.

"Nobody but that's what you wanted to hear right?" Sakura answered sarcastically. Touya walked up to Sakura, hugging her.

"I just want you to be happy. You know I love you; you're my little sister." Touya and Sakura kept the hug up for a while before Touya let her go to sleep.

"Goodnight, Sakura."

"Goodnight, Touya." Sakura walked in her room and changed. She wiped off the makeup, let her hair fall down and climbed into bed. She rolled over to face her mother's beautiful picture.

"Hi, mom, well today was the Christmas Banquet. Syaoran went with Kairi. I went with nobody. Kairi's a nice girl. I think she deserves Syaoran. I knew I didn't have a chance with so many girls in Seiju High for him to choose from. I mean, if he randomly picks out 50, I might not even be in that 50. Well, I better get some sleep. It's already 1. Goodnight, mom…" Sakura placed the picture frame back on her bedside table and rolled over to face the wall. She slowly drifted off to sleep.

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**I hope you guys like this chapter. I actually had it finished a couple days ago but it's Christmas. Please review. I think there's one or two chapters left. I kinda have an idea how I should wrap this up but if you guys have any ideas, please tell me.**

**athena**


	5. Secret Santa

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own CCS._

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_**

**_Secret Santa_**

Sakura rolled over on her bed and her eyes fluttered open to see that her blankets were wrapped around her body because of her tossing and turning in her sleep all night long. She heard the doorbell ring and groaned.

"Touya, get the door!" Sakura shouted but when Touya didn't shout back for her to get the door, it dawned on her that he was at work all day today. Sakura rolled out of her wrinkled blankets and threw them aside as she jumped off her bed. The girl rushed to the door and opened it.

"Hello?" Sakura peeked outside the door but saw nobody there. Instead there was a neatly-wrapped present on the ground. The box was wrapped with pink paper and a silver bow.

"Why would somebody give me a present?" Sakura mumbled to herself as she closed the door, shivering from the cold, crisp air. She held it up and shook it lightly. There was no sound coming from it. Sakura walked back upstairs, sat down on her bed, and untied the silver bow. Suddenly, she stopped mid-pulling the ribbon.

"What if it's not mine?" Sakura thought and shrugged.

"Oh well, I'll open it and then find out who's it's for." Sakura suggested to herself. She untied the ribbon and tore the wrapping paper off like a monster on Trashville, a Children's TV series where monsters went around their hometown (Trashville), destroying everything in sight, completely dedicated for the eyes and minds of children under the age of preteen.

Sakura looked down at her present. It was nothing special; just home-made cookies, but very delicious-looking cookies. Sakura took one from the bed of tissue paper inside the box and bit into it. It tasted so good! Once it entered Sakura's mouth, it felt like Sakura was falling into a pool of chocolate and the cookies were still warm in all that cold air. Suddenly, the moment was interrupted by Sakura's cell phone ringing.

"Moshi-moshi…" Sakura answered the phone with some cookie in her mouth.

"Moshi-moshi, Sakura, its Tomoyo; I was wondering if you wanted to join Meilin, Hiroshi, Syaoran, Eriol, and I to go watch a movie or something today."

"Okay, maybe you guys can help figure out my mysterious gift-sender too." Without further ado, Sakura hung up and got ready to go. In half an hour, Sakura was ready to leave the house. When Sakura was about to close the door, she realized that she'd forgotten the cookies. Sakura ran back into the house, put the cookies in a plastic bag and dumped them in her bag.

Sakura walked out of her door and suddenly, a car hit the side of the curb and almost hit Sakura.

"What the heck is wrong with you?" Sakura was about to give the driver a huge lecture but then she saw that Eriol was driving with Tomoyo, Hiroshi, Syaoran, and Meilin in the car.

"Oh, ohayou, you guys; you know, Eriol, you almost ran over me." Sakura opened the door and climbed in the van. Hiroshi and Meilin were sitting in the back row, Syaoran was sitting in the center-side and Tomoyo was sitting in the passenger's seat with Eriol driving. Sakura slammed the door shut and looked back at Eriol, just in time to see him smirk.

"Gomen-nasai, Sakura." Eriol looked back to the front and began driving again.

"So where are we going anyway?" Sakura asked Tomoyo as she scooted forwards in her chair.

"Well, you guys, I've got the whole schedule planned out. So, first, we're going to go watch a movie, and then we're going to eat lunch. After lunch, I was thinking the girls could drive the guys somewhere for once so that the guys could just relax in the back for driving all the time, and then to dinner on the other side of town. After dinner, we go to the beach to watch the stars and stuff. If anyone has any objections, speak now or forever hold your peace." Tomoyo announced and looked at each person's face for any objections or signs of dislike.

"Okay, it's settled then-to the theaters, Eriol!" Tomoyo squealed along with the van as its tires screeched on the road.

"Oh wait, you guys, I almost forgot. I have some cookies here for you guys." Sakura pulled the plastic bag of cookies out from her little bag and showed it to everybody.

"Did you make these, Sakura?" Meilin asked, not wanting her to do anything special for them.

"No, a box of these cookies arrived in front of my door this morning and I decided to share it with you guys." Sakura smiled gleefully.

"Why? Is there something wrong with them?" Syaoran asked in a playful tone. Sakura smiled.

"No, of course not; actually, they're wonderful. But I just wanted you guys to try them and see if you can find out who might've left them in front of the door for me." Sakura spilled the beans as everyone tried one.

"Wow, they're awesome!" Tomoyo squealed. She gave a bite to Eriol and he agreed. Meilin nodded and Hiroshi also agreed. For some reason, Sakura couldn't help but think that Eriol and Meilin had something that they were hiding. It looked like they were hiding a secret-possibly the maker of these cookies.

"Wow, they do taste good." Syaoran announced as he licked his fingers. Sakura leaned back in her chair and took a cookie out of her bag again. She just had to have another one. Her craving for one of those warm, delicious cookies won over her feelings of not wanting to be fat.

"So does anyone come into mind when you guys eat the cookies?" Sakura asked. Sakura was especially paying extra attention on Meilin and Eriol because they seemed like they knew. Suddenly, she saw it. Eriol looked into the rearview mirror and Meilin and he exchanged glances.

"Eriol, Meilin, anyone come into mind?" Sakura urged.

"Yeah, Syaoran bakes like this." Meilin answered. Sakura's eyes widened at Meilin's answer, almost choking on her chocolate-chip cookie.

"But that's impossible because Syaoran was with us all morning. He couldn't have driven over to your house and drop off a present." Eriol answered quickly. Sakura's eyes dropped down to her cookie. Although, in her heart, she really wanted the answer to be Syaoran, she knew it couldn't be true.

"So, any other suggestions or guesses…" Sakura moved on but nobody knew anything about the cookies. Sakura sighed and leaned back in her chair.

"_This is going to be bothering me the whole day._" Sakura thought about the present as they drove to the theater. When they finally got there and parked, Sakura was almost dragged out of the car without her knowing about it.

When they got to the front window, Sakura paid for her ticket and walked away without taking her ticket. Being the nice friend that he was, Syaoran took Sakura's ticket for her and helped her into the theater too. Sakura was led by her friends to the top row of the theater, right between Syaoran and Tomoyo. As the lights dimmed, Sakura snapped back to reality.

"What's going on?" Sakura asked out loud. Her question was returned with a "Shh…", "Shut up!", and a "Be quiet!" from every single one of the movie watchers.

"The movie's starting." Tomoyo whispered to Sakura and they all started paying attention to the movie. About ten minutes into the movie, a little girl from the movie ran downstairs to open her presents that she got from Santa and her many relatives. The presents reminded Sakura about the cookies again.

"_Who knows I like cookies? Well, everyone likes cookies. But who would especially bake cookies just for a present? Maybe it's some guy from the Cooking Club. Nah, I barely know those guys. Or maybe it was Touya playing a trick on me. No, that'd be too mean for Touya._" Suddenly, a huge explosion broke Sakura's chain of thoughts. Sakura looked up and realized that it came from the movie. She raised an eyebrow, totally confused about how from one minute, it was a joyous Christmas morning, and then it turns to this huge chaotic explosion. Sakura was about to ask Tomoyo for the details but thought better of it when she saw Tomoyo burying her face into Eriol's jacket. Apparently, the explosion had scared her. Sakura sighed.

"_Wow, good thing I wasn't paying attention to the movie or else I would've grabbed onto Syaoran's arm or something. That would've been embarrassing._" Sakura began watching the rest of the movie again. When the movie ended, they all went back to the car and started a huge discussion on the movie.

"I think it was very good. It was very heart-warming too." Meilin said.

"Wow, coming from Meilin, that's saying a lot." Syaoran grinned and ended up getting a smack on the head by Meilin.

"I loved the ending." Tomoyo sniffled a little and wiped the rest of her tears. The smoky-amethyst haired girl looked down at the troubled, little one.

"Sakura, didn't you like the movie?" Tomoyo asked.

"What? Oh, sorry, Tomoyo, well, I didn't really watch it that much. I couldn't get my mind off that present this morning." Sakura explained shamefully.

"No wonder why you aren't crying. If Meilin thought it was heart-warming, Tomoyo started crying a little, you would be crying a river right about now." Eriol commented. Everyone laughed at his comment.

"Well, Sakura, you should really think about what to eat now because we're here." Tomoyo pointed out. She opened the door and jumped out, followed by the rest of the gang. They all walked into the restaurant and sat down, reading their menus.

"Let's see, Hiroshi, you want to share something with me? I'm not that hungry with all that popcorn anyway." Meilin begged her boyfriend. Hiroshi nodded as he put his menu down. Tomoyo and Eriol did the same and Tomoyo snapped her fingers in the air for the waiter to come to the table.

Soon, a waiter with black, slick hair walked over to the table.

"Ohayou, Tomoyo, I haven't seen you in forever." The waiter greeted his old friend.

"Yeah, Jiro, hopefully we can catch up some time."

"Yeah, but now, I have to resume to my work. So let me start over, my name is Jiro. Would you like to start with any drinks right now?" The waiter asked.

"I think we'll just have some water." Tomoyo smiled at her friend and put her menu down.

"Okay, and are you ready to order the food or appetizers?" Jiro asked professionally.

"Uh…well he and I would like lobster." Tomoyo answered. She gave Jiro the menu and Jiro turned to Meilin.

"He and I would like a prime rib." Meilin handed him the menu and noticed Hiroshi let out a small laugh.

"Yeah, you're totally not hungry, Meilin." Meilin jabbed Hiroshi in the rib in a playful way.

"I guess I'll have a bowl of soba." Syaoran answered. He put his menu down and everybody looked at Sakura, waiting for her to come out from behind her large menu and tell Jiro what she wanted.

"Uh…I'm not sure. And I'm not too hungry. Maybe I'll just pick off some food from you guys." Sakura answered. Jiro took the menu from her and he bowed, backing into the kitchen.

"So…who's this Jiro guy?" Eriol asked, staring at the kitchen doors with despise behind his glasses.

"Oh, just an old friend…"

"An old friend; well you two seem pretty close for just friends." Eriol answered, looking back at Tomoyo suspiciously.

"Oh, somebody's jealous." Meilin sang in a melodic tune to Hiroshi. Hiroshi and Meilin started cracking up.

"N-no, I'm not jealous. It's just that I don't like him." Eriol answered. The whole table started laughing. When the laughing died down, Sakura put her head down on the table as her friends stared at her. She certainly seemed to be deep in thought. Everybody could tell what she was thinking about so they didn't bother her. When everybody was almost falling asleep from watching Sakura just twirl her metal fork around while she was thinking, Jiro came up to the table again.

"Uh…who's Sakura Kinomoto?" Sakura looked up at Jiro and raised her hand. Jiro handed Sakura another gift.

"Wow, arigato Jiro, but do you know who gave this to me?" Sakura asked, hopeful that Jiro knew the answer.

"No, it was dropped off at the front desk to a waitress, Gin. The mystery person told her to give it to me, so then I could give it to you." Jiro answered. Sakura accepted the gift and smiled.

"Arigato-gozaimasu, Jiro…"

"No problem." Jiro walked away with Eriol burning a death glare into his back. Sakura stared down at the present.

"Well aren't you going to open it?" Tomoyo stared at Sakura hopefully. Sakura looked up at her with a doubtful expression.

"I should, shouldn't I?" Sakura asked. She began opening the present and when all the wrapping was taken away, Sakura found herself staring at a black, velvet box.

"Oh my goodness, Sakura, you take so long just to open a simple, little present!" Meilin rushed. Sakura took the box into her small hands and opened it. Tomoyo and Meilin gasped as they stared at Sakura's present. Sakura took the gift out of the box and held it up, not realizing that Tomoyo and Meilin snatched the box and began examining it very carefully.

"Wow, that's beautiful, Sakura." Eriol complimented the necklace.

"Yeah, do you need help putting it on?" Syaoran asked.

"Sure, thanks." Sakura answered. Syaoran fastened the necklace around Sakura's neck. A light, gold chain held the necklace together and at the center were three charms that moved freely around her neck. The middle charm was a cherry blossom (as expected), the left charm was a shiny, little disc-thing that shined rainbow colors when the sun hit it, and the last charm on the right of the cherry blossom was a little rhinestone.

"It looks great on you, Sakura." Hiroshi smiled and Sakura returned one. Tomoyo and Meilin finally looked up from examining the box.

"Whoever it was, they were really good at this sort of game. They picked an expensive shop, ripped off the price tag, and they were very sneaky about it. But we've never seen one this good before." Meilin blurted out. Then she turned the explaining over to Tomoyo, the fashion queen.

"First of all, this kind of box is only found in the most expensive jewelry stores. Second, there's a little sticky part on the under part of this box which indicates the exact location the price tag was, and if you look closely, you can still see a little paper on it-they were probably in a rush to get the tag off. Third, they handed it to someone to tell someone else to give it to you, preventing any questions from being answered. Now, according to my calculations, we have just crossed off everybody that's not rich on the list so that leaves about 23 guys from our class in our school, that actually know you." Tomoyo smiled. Sakura, Syaoran, Hiroshi, and Eriol looked very funny. Their expressions were crosses between scared, awe, and how-did-you-know-that.

"Wow, thanks, you guys." Sakura took the box back and placed it in her bag. Then, Jiro came with the food and they started eating up. Sakura still had the presents in her mind but she wasn't as distracted as she was at the theater.

"Now where do we go, my special navigator?" Eriol grinned as they all got back into the car. Now that Tomoyo was away from Jiro, Eriol seemed a little less tense.

"Well, it's time for the girls to drive and the guys to sit back and relax! But just so we're clear, no arguing once we get there." Tomoyo smirked with an evil smile. Now the guys were a little scared.

"Okay, Meilin, you drive. I'll navigate and Sakura, you just have to sit there and entertain the guys with stuff." Everybody did as they were told. Eriol and Meilin switched seats, and Sakura looked around the car for something that would entertain them.

"With what, though?" Sakura asked Tomoyo. Tomoyo grabbed a book from the compartment.

"Here, read to them." Sakura read the title in her mind and looked back at Tomoyo. She raised an eyebrow and showed the guys the book.

"No way am I listening to Cinderella." The guys protested.

"And no way am I reading about Cinderella." Sakura gave the book back to Tomoyo.

"Well if you have to be picky about it. Fine, you think about it then." Tomoyo pouted and stared back at the road.

"Well, we can all take a wild guess on where those two are taking us." Sakura suggested.

"You mean you have no idea too?" Eriol asked. Sakura shook her head.

"That's not good…" Eriol held his head.

"Well, let's guess. Where's somewhere that they'd take us that we haven't gone to yet, where we can do something that the guys don't want to do?" Hiroshi explained logically. Sakura felt like water was just dumped over her head. Now she knew where they were going and she was glad about it too. She also knew why they wanted to keep it a secret, so she kept her mouth shut too just so that there wouldn't be any whining in the car, just yet.

"Any thoughts yet…" Sakura acted.

"No. Oh well, I guess we'll just have to wait for our doom." Eriol sighed.

"No need to wait, we're here." Syaoran pointed out the window. They found the car parked in the parking lot of…

"Welcome to the new mall in Tomoeda!" Tomoyo announced like she was the tour guide.

"Oh no…" The boys all whined as Sakura jumped out of the car.

"Nice choice, Tomoyo." Sakura commented.

"Thanks, but I…" Tomoyo was cut off by Eriol.

"Wait a minute, Sakura, you knew?"

"Well, after Hiroshi laid the whole thing out." Sakura smiled innocently as the three girls pulled the other guys into the mall. When they stepped into the huge mall, everybody's jaws dropped, even the guys.

"Whoa, this place has five floors and there's like two stores that sell almost the exact same things-**Crystallized Jewelry Store** and **Kimberly's Jewelry Co**." Syaoran counted the floors for the hundredth time, making sure he didn't miss a floor.

"Hey, Meilin, Sakura, let's go in here first." Tomoyo grabbed a map of the mall from a little slot on the bottom of the directory. She pointed to a blue box on the glossy paper.

"Sure, and look, it's right there." Meilin, Sakura, and Tomoyo linked arms and strolled down a couple stores. Afterwards, they started looking for anything that looked wild, cute, or pretty.

"Oh my goodness, Sakura, this looks so nice on you!" Tomoyo squealed.

"It's awesome, go try it on!" Meilin pushed Sakura into an empty dressing room and they both stood outside. In a minute, Sakura came out of the dressing room. She looked at herself in the mirror. The V-neckline was a little lower than she thought, good thing she was wearing a white tank top underneath. The sleeves came out like bell-bottoms, and the bottom hem wasn't straight.

"That's so cute on you, Sakura, and the pink really matches you!" Tomoyo squealed loudly.

"You really think so?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah, but if you don't trust us, ask the guys." Meilin motioned for the guys to come over.

"Doesn't Sakura look awesomely cute?" Tomoyo wrapped an arm around Eriol's arm.

"Yeah…" Eriol smiled.

"Okay, let's buy it and move on." Tomoyo rushed Sakura back into the dressing room to change out of it. After another minute, Sakura was out and she paid for the shirt.

"Now where do we go?" Meilin asked Tomoyo.

"Gosh, I don't know. Where do you want to go, Sakura?" Tomoyo and Meilin shared a wink which nobody saw.

"Uh…I want to go…to the pet store." Sakura smiled sheepishly.

"Oh, well I want to go to the new arcade." Meilin blurted.

"And I was thinking of going to the jewelry store." Tomoyo smiled.

"Oh, well then we can go to the…" Sakura started.

"I have an idea! How about we just separate and then meet back at the car at around six." Tomoyo squealed.

"Alright, I love it. Come on, Hiroshi, I'm going to finally beat your high score on that game." Meilin grabbed Hiroshi and sped off with Eriol and Tomoyo headed the other way. So the only two left were Sakura and Syaoran.

"Well, if you want to go somewhere else, I'll go to the pet store by myself." Sakura looked at Syaoran.

"No, I'll just go with you. If I don't, I'm scared Tomoyo's going to rip my head off for not helping carry your bags." Sakura giggled at Syaoran's sarcasm and they started to head over to the pet store.

"So, why did you want to go to the pet store?" Syaoran asked as he looked at all the animals in the store. Dogs were chasing cats, which were chasing mice. Birds were flying everywhere overhead and the dangerous animals were locked up in cages behind a glass window.

"Well, I wanted to come see if they had any cute animals." Sakura smiled. She walked over to the table of rabbits. On the table was a cage the size of the table but the top of the cage was ripped off so that people could pet the rabbits freely. There were six rabbits total. Two were sleeping together, all curled up; one was in the little house; another one was busy jumping back and forth from food and water; two of them were either being held or petted.

"Aw, that one looks scared." Sakura smiled. She picked up a few pieces of rabbit food and held them in front of the rabbit stuck in the house. The rabbit sniffed the food and slowly came out into the light. Sakura picked up the rabbit as it ate the food from her hands.

"Isn't it cute?" Sakura held the rabbit up to Syaoran. The bunny's eyes were big and black, and the fur was all white. Syaoran started petting the rabbit on the head.

"Well, I think I'm going to name it Snowball." Sakura smiled.

"Why Snowball?"

"Because it's white; I don't get why people would name their cats snowball. I mean, obviously, it doesn't look like a ball." Sakura placed the bunny back on the ground. The bunny lingered for a while before retreating back into its little home.

"Well, bye, Snowball." Sakura waved at the bunny before leaving the pet store.

"So, where do you want to go now?" Sakura swiveled around to face Syaoran.

"Uh, you know, I almost forgot. My cousin's friend's third aunt is having a birthday party for her cousin's daughter's son. They invited me and I still need to buy a present for him. So, I'll see you later. It's going to take a while buying something for him. So, I'll just see you back at the car later. Bye." Syaoran ran off, leaving Sakura speechless.

"_Was it something I did? No, silly, maybe he's going to buy a present for Kumiko but he didn't want to hurt my feelings or something. Well, Sakura, you're on your own._" Sakura walked around the mall, totally wandering in a very, very slow pace. She didn't even go into any stores. At about 5:55, she realized that it was time to go back to the car and she was on the highest level.

"_I think I'll take the elevator so that I can hopefully see where everybody is._" Sakura walked in the elevator, lucky for her, it was empty. She walked in and pressed 'G' for 'Ground Floor'. Sakura faced the clean, glass window and the elevator started moving. The bell rang when Sakura reached the 'Ground Floor'. She walked out and smiled to herself.

"_So, Tomoyo and Eriol are taking a nice stroll on the 'Third Floor'. Meilin and Hiroshi lost track of time and are still in the arcade. And Syaoran's heading back to the car. Good._" Sakura walked to the car and met Syaoran there.

"Hey, so, what did you by for your cousin's friend's third aunt's somebody or other?" Sakura asked. Syaoran laughed at her a little and looked at her.

"You can just say Aruka." Syaoran answered slowly.

"Aruka…yeah, that…person…" Sakura answered, hiding the fact that she didn't know whether Aruka was a girl or boy since Aruka sounds like a girl's name but she could've sworn Syaoran said 'son' earlier.

"Oh, I bought a huge toy from…**Happy Land**." Syaoran gulped after saying the name of the store.

"Wow that is a huge box in that bag." Sakura's eyes widened. After standing there for a while, the other four shoppers finally came out of the mall.

"So, did everybody have fun?" Tomoyo asked.

"Yes." Everybody answered in unison.

"Even the guys, honestly?" Tomoyo asked.

"Yes." Tomoyo nodded and they finally went back to their original seats in the car.

"Now, it's dinner time across town!" Tomoyo pumped up her fists and Eriol started the car.

"So, what did everybody buy?" Tomoyo asked curiously.

"We spent the whole time in the arcade, so I guess you can say we bought tokens." Meilin answered.

"I didn't buy anything. I spent my whole time walking around aimlessly." Sakura replied.

"Oh, then what is that bag that Syaoran was holding for you?" Tomoyo asked suspiciously.

"Oh, that's not mine. Syaoran and I split up after the pet store because he realized that he needed to buy something for Aruka." Sakura answered for Syaoran.

"Who the heck is Aruka?" Tomoyo asked, giving Syaoran a threatening glare that said it-better-not-be-a-girl.

"Aruka is my cousin's friend's third aunt's cousin's daughter's son." Syaoran answered.

"How come I don't know Aruka?" Meilin and Eriol asked considering the fact that Meilin was his cousin and Eriol was his best friend.

"Because, Meilin, believe it or not, I do have two parents, you're not from both sides of my family. And Eriol, I don't have to tell you who my cousin's friend's family is." Syaoran answered quickly. Meilin and Eriol rolled their eyes but they knew it was true.

"Well we have about 45 minutes of a car ride left." Eriol announced.

"Let's think of something to do." Tomoyo started brainstorming.

"Or we can just go to sleep." Syaoran whispered, pointing to Sakura. Everybody started laughing quietly so that they don't wake her up. About 45 minutes passed and they arrived at the front of the restaurant.

"Sakura, wake up." Tomoyo shook Sakura.

"What?"

"We're here, let's go."

"Oh, okay." Sakura unbuckled her seat belt and got out of the car with everybody else. They opened the doors to the restaurant and walked up a couple steps. They looked around the restaurant. It was a very interesting-looking place. When they walked in, soft music filled their ears. The floor was actually glass with an aquarium under their feet. The ceiling was randomly adorned with shimmering specks that made it seem like the night sky. There were couches lined up along the walls and round tables before them. At the back of the restaurant was a bar where people could sit and drink. They took their seats on a couch and a waitress placed the menus on the table.

"Hey, how about we order a bunch of appetizers to share?" Tomoyo suggested. Since she was the navigator of this whole outing, they didn't argue. So far, Tomoyo didn't bring them anywhere that they didn't really enjoy. Tomoyo looked up and gestured for the waitress to get over there.

"Hi, we'll have Crab Legs, Shrimp Cocktail, California Rolls, Onion Rings, Shrimp Tempura, and six bowls of Miso Soup." Tomoyo ordered. The waitress wrote them all down and left with the menus.

"So, how do you guys like this place?" Tomoyo asked, making sure that she was being a good _tour guide_.

"It's great, Tomoyo." Sakura commented. Their conversation lasted for about ten minutes until the food arrived. Throughout the whole dinner, it was pretty quiet besides the battling between the last pieces of food, laughing, and the background music.

"Check please!" Tomoyo waved her arm in the air. The waitress gave the check to Tomoyo and stood there, waiting to collect the money.

"Arigato-gozaimasu, Eriol…" Everybody cried out in unison. Eriol sighed and pulled out his wallet. He paid with one of his many cards and left the restaurant.

"And now where are we going?" Eriol asked.

"To the last stop of the night-the beach!" Tomoyo exclaimed. Eriol pulled out of the parking space and drove back to the other side of town.

"I'm so full!" Sakura tried stirring up the conversation a little bit.

"Yeah, that was a great dinner, Tomoyo." Hiroshi sighed.

"I'm glad everybody enjoyed it. I really loved how they decorated the place." Tomoyo looked at the four passengers in the back.

"Yeah, I loved the aquarium. They really did a great job. The aquarium was so clean!" Sakura squealed. Everybody laughed. During the ride back, everybody tried keeping the conversation up but there wasn't really that many things to talk about in 45 minutes.

"Well we're finally here." Eriol announced. He turned the ignition off and everybody jumped out of the car. The sea breeze was just right. Tomoyo and Eriol grabbed hold of their hands and walked down to the beach. They sat down on the sand, cuddled up in each others' arms. Hiroshi and Meilin walked around on the beach, trying to keep away from the freezing, cold water; which, once again, left Sakura and Syaoran.

"Sakura, aren't you going to go out to the beach too?" Syaoran asked.

"No, it's too cold. I think I'm going to stay here, wrapped in a bundle." Sakura answered with a smile.

"Okay, I'll stay with you." Syaoran answered. He closed the door on the van and sat in his chair.

"Well, you don't have to. You can go outside if you want." Sakura assured him.

"Yeah, but something bad might happen."

"What can happen at 8:30 PM at the beach?"

"Tomoyo might kill me for leaving you alone." Sakura laughed.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Sakura leaned back in her chair and looked up. It was a good idea for Eriol to keep the top open.

"Oh, hey, you know my cousin's friend's…Aruka?" Sakura turned to Syraoran.

"Yeah, what about him…or her…" Sakura asked.

"Well, you want to see what I bought Aruka? You'll regret it if you don't." Syaoran urged.

"Sure, why not? I mean, there's nothing else to do." Sakura replied. Syaoran climbed to the back and grabbed the huge box really carefully.

"Here, take a look." Syaoran handed the box to Sakura. Sakura raised an eyebrow. Something was wrong, but she just couldn't point her finger on it. She did as she was told and opened the box. Sakura's eyes widened. She was so surprised to see what the present was. Sakura took the present out of the box. It was Snowball!

"Oh my goodness, you're giving Snowball to Aruka?" Sakura asked, still staring at Snowball.

"Actually, there's no friend or distant relative of mine named Aruka. I went back to the pet store to buy Snowball for you." Syaoran admitted while staring down, his hair hanging loosely over his eyes. In the dark, Sakura could tell that he was blushing; which means he had to be blushing pretty furiously.

"Wow, thanks, Syaoran, but why?" Sakura asked; she placed the bunny on her lap as she ran her fingers through Snowball's, soft fur.

"Because I'm your 'Secret Santa', I'm the one who gave you the cookies and the necklace before." Syaoran answered, finally looking into Sakura's eyes.

"But why would you buy so many presents for me?" Sakura asked. Deep down, she probably knew the answer but she really wanted him to say it.

"I love you." Sakura felt tears threatening to come out. She leaned over and gave Syaoran a big hug.

"Syaoran, thank you so much for these things; I love you too." Sakura smiled. Tears of joy started falling down her face. To keep her tears from staining his shirt, she reluctantly pulled away.

"Finally, you guys, it took forever just to say that. How easy was that?" Tomoyo, Eriol, Meilin, and Hiroshi stood outside of the car, watching the two.

"What? You guys knew that he did all this?" Sakura asked, shocked that everybody knew except her.

"Yeah…who do you think was the one who brought up the idea of _Secret Santa_?" Tomoyo asked as she climbed back into the car. Everybody got back into the car and just sat there, explaining the whole story to Sakura.

"Well, you see, Sakura; Hiroshi and I confronted Syaoran after the banquet. He said that Kumiko asked and she was a nice girl. He didn't really want to let her down because she seemed REALLY nervous when her girlfriends pushed her over to Syaoran one day. That's why he went with Kumiko." Eriol explained.

"Then, we all came up with this plan of _Secret Santa_." Meilin joined in the explanation.

"Wow, this was well-planned." Sakura smirked.

"Well enough of that past stuff, now we're on to the future with Syaoran and Sakura as a couple!" Tomoyo clapped her hands.

"Alright, let's go home." Eriol smiled. He drove Hiroshi home, and then Tomoyo. And then Sakura, but of course, they had to wait for Syaoran to get back in the car before leaving.

"Thanks for Snowball again, Syaoran, I really like her." Sakura smiled. Syaoran and Sakura leaned in and gave each other a hug. She looked up at Syaoran and they both came into a passionate kiss.

"Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

* * *

**THE END! I hope you guys liked it. Sorry it took forever to post the last chapter but I kept trying to perfect it. And school is a nasty thing. Well thanks for reading. And sorry if I wasted your time...**

**athena**


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